Typically, Insulation Displacement Connectors (IDC), known as wall jacks, are terminated by use of a punch-down tool. Known punch-down tools have fixed types of blades and therefore each works for one specific type of wall jack. However, there are numerous types of wall jacks, each with a different geometry. Geometry of wall jacks may differ from one another in many aspects. For example, within a wall jack, the dimensions between the housings for each and/or every set of wires could be different. Furthermore, such tools are designed for cutting wires, and not for connecting wires.
Additionally, many of the existing punch-down tools are not easy to use. For example, when a punch-down tool is loosely held in one hand, and the wall jack is held in the other hand, the angle of termination can vary from a few degrees to hundreds of degrees off center from an optimal termination. As such, if the user is off center, the termination will be degraded and a poor data signal will require the technician to re-terminate the wire. Furthermore, during the termination process the technician is exposed to the possibility of missing the jack and pushing the sharp edge of the terminating blade into his hand and possibly injuring himself or damaging the wall jack. Such punch-down tools impact the jack in a fast action, and as such, they do not allow the technician to slowly adjust the tool and the jack for optimal termination. Additionally, the force of the termination cannot be controlled due to the technician holding the tool in one hand and the wall jack in the other hand. The technician may hold the jack against a wall or floor, but this will increase the chances of scuffing or damaging a wall or floor.
With many of the current tools, the technician does not have a platform to hold the jack safely and securely to make the optimal termination on a wall jack. Typically, a wire will be protruding from a wall outlet. In an optimal installation the wire will have sufficient length for the technician to terminate the wire to the wall jack. However the length of wire protruding from the wall may be very short and therefore may not allow the technician much operating length to make a proper impact termination.
There are some rigid systems that can securely hold certain wall jacks in place, allowing the technician to terminate up to several wires simultaneously. However, the pitfall of those systems is that they require seating blades that are fixed and/or are molded into a plastic holder (or a holder made of similar type of material in kind). Such systems work for only specific type of wall jacks. In such systems, the blade geometry is fixed, the actuation length is fixed, and the receive end is fixed and cannot be modified for other wall jacks with different geometric features. Furthermore for certain type of wall jacks, simply there may be no such tools available that would be compatible.
There are some tools which have multiple blades. However, in such tools, all blades are permanently mounted to a fixture. As such, the blades cannot be replaced individually. If one blade becomes damaged, one must replace all blades at once, which may be costly.
In some of the above mentioned tools, a user has no control over the force of the termination, thus the technician cannot control for the optimal seating of the wire in the jack for varying types of wire gauges. Additionally, the throw or termination length of the system is defined by the tool for one type of wall jack. The length of travel for different wire diameters or other different types of wall jacks can not be changed, and the blade height is fixed and cannot be adjusted. Furthermore, the length of the tool is fixed and cannot be adjusted easily for dissimilar types of wall jacks.